Red and green for Christmas

Who colour coded Christmas?

What would Banksy do in Hong Kong?

But the Chinese probably wouldn't get the humour.

Banksy here, here, and there.

Tell me a story

'Oh no! We were making such good progress! Now look what you've done. How are we going to explain this?'

Lunar eclipse, Hong Kong

It's not a man who lives in the moon, it's a rabbit. Look at the moon; you can see the ears. Or read the story.

Tonight the rabbit is covered by the earth's deep shadow, and we're all unreasonably excited. We'll be out on the roof tonight, and when it becomes too cold, watching the webcast.

Learn about the lunar eclipse on starryskies and on wiki.

British Film Institute on Youtube

So long as no-one wants me to do anything else all day long ...

I'm finding out about Pepper's Ghost, Lantern slides, and watching movies courtesy of the BFI.

Witch cottage

A brilliant find! Ordinary country England under James I brought slap into the twenty-first century.

Great for Lancashire tourist industry, too. I'm looking forward to what they do with the find. Um, I hope they're not going to demolish it. (How did they find the cat?) Let's hope they give us intelligent historical interpretation and sensitive reconstruction.

More background here, and check out what's with hero Simon Armitage on the iplayer here.

Remember the exhibition about the Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, in the fantastic Colchester Castle Museum? Let's visit again. Go here if you're brave enough.

(All the more info to help us talk about feminist interpretations of witches, about witchcraft in popular culture, and the practice of paganism.)

Of course I couldn't leave the subject without laughter.

Goldfish Salvation

Artist Riusuke Fukahori, who - alarmingly - has been salvaged and suffered by goldfish.

(When I first read that, I thought it said savaged.)

Nice fish though.

Le Voyage dans la Lune

Watch a black and white screening of this 1902 film by Méliè on Youtube. (I turned off the spoken narrative for the full silent effect.)

Hand-coloured versions were also available; one hand-tinted copy, discovered in 1993 and now restored, is touring from 2011.

Women in art

Beautiful, tender, modest, beguiling, graceful, fragile, here.

Alongside that, can we also hang out the flags for women who are fearless, determined, ruthless, cruel, angry, courageous, rebellious, pained, distressed, traumatised, vengeful, driven, triumphant, powerful, and downright scary.

Artemisia Gentileschi could lead the procession.

What's the story?

Beats our courgette space rockets

Food art.

One cable car ride I want to take.

I turned off the chattering and enjoyed the views.

A little bit of me is dying inside

Remember girls, they're new to you, but they make me feel a thousand years old.

Here are the songs V has asked you to learn.

I wish it could be Christmas everyday. (Not.)
The video they tried to ban. (I wish them every success.)
Snow is falling. (I hated it then. I hate it now.)

Seriously, did she not also suggest you knock out this one? Merry Christmas everybody. (I can tolerate this one more, mostly because by the time I hear it, I'm already anesthetised.)

In another fifteen years, you will feel exactly as I do.

Negligent seals?

Seals can't be bothered to pup check?

I would suggest that does not demonstrate a casual attitude to sealy motherhood; that demonstrates complete confidence in their offspring.

The Secret of the Unicorn

Let's make a date for the cinema for Tintin.

Ice, ice, ice

Visit Otzi's life, five thousand years ago.

Frozen salt water? Visit the BBC to discover the Brinicle.

The Gamburtsevs, mountains in storage, under the Antarctic ice.

Flowers that party all night

The night-flowering orchid.

If you were going to discover a flower, what would you like to find?

Street art or graffiti?

We don't see too much street art/graffiti in Hong Kong.

Click through the images here, at Cafe Babel. What do you think? The captions make several interesting points - graffiti is a means to create a community memory for example - but when you look at street art, what's your reaction and opinion? Do you like it? Would you want to see more of it? Does it make you feel included or excluded in a public space? Can urban art be great art? Should it be celebrated or repressed?

I still haven't made up my mind about this and I've been struggling with it for 30 years.

Andy Goldsworthy

Ah! I fondly recall the afternoon in Ashridge woods constructing the Andy Goldsworthy homage from thirty-two twigs and a puddle.

How it rained! IT RAINED. The puddle became a bog and we all stood on the twigs by accident. But we went home happy, for that day we made art.

Review some of the extraordinary output of the real Andy Goldsworthy here.

He has set me on a lifetime of deliberate arrangement.

Tell me a story